Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Burnt Sugar

Fabiano Caruana – Dommaraju Gukesh
11th Norway Chess; Armageddon game (time control: 10 minutes for White and 7 minutes for Black with a 1-second increment starting at move 41; Stavanger, June 6, 2023
8/p4qnk/1pp2p1p/2p1pN1P/P1P1P1Q1/3P2P1/2P2K2/8 w - - 4 41

Position after 40. ... Ne6-g7

In the matchup with Gukesh, Caruana bet everything on the Armageddon, which, in hindsight, proved to be a questionable strategy.
41. Nxg7!? The Queen ending, although very advantageous for White, is also Black’s only and best hope for survival. Much stronger was 41. Nd6! Qxh5 42. Qxh5 Nxh5 43. Nc8 raiding Black’s Queenside Pawns.
41. ... Qxg7 42. Qf5+ Kh8 43. Qc8+ Kh7 44. Qxc6 Qe7 45. Kf3 Kg7 46. Qc8 Qf7 47. Kg4 Kh7 48. Kh4 Kg7 49. Kg4 Kh7 50. Qf5+ Kg7 51. Kf3 Qe8 52. Ke3 Qf7 53. g4 Qe8 54. Kd2 Qf7 55. Qc8 Qe7 56. Kc3 Qf7 57. Kb3 Qe7 58. Qf5 Qe8 59. Ka3 a5. This further weakening of the Pawn formation is probably the last thing Gukesh would have wanted to do, but otherwise, White would have been the one to breakthrough by a4-a5.
60. Kb3 Qf7 61. Qc8 Qe7 62. Qc6 Qd8 63. Qe6 Qd4 64. Qe7+ Kg8


65. Qxf6? Time is never enough. Right was 65. Qe8+! taking both the f6 and the h6 Pawns with check, and finally capturing b6.
65. ... Qa1! 66. Qg6+ Kf8 67. Qxh6+ Kg8? Gukesh is three Pawns down, but had he played 67. ... Ke7! White would hardly have had any valid reason to claim more than a draw, as the b6-Pawn is untouchable, while, on the other hand, Black is threatening to draw by perpetual check with ... Qa1-b1+ (the White King cannot move to c3 due to ... Qb1-b4#).
68. Qg6+ Kh8 69. Qf6+ Kg8


70. Qg5+? 70. Qd8+! would transpose to the game.
70. ... Kh8? (70. ... Kf7!)
71. Qd8+! 0 : 1. Now after 71. ... K~ 72. Qd7+ K~ 73. Qb5 White should finally win, technically speaking. But Caruana quite dramatically overstepped the time limit.

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